Boks crumble against All Blacks: Four key points

A dismal start to the match for the Springboks laid the platform for the All Blacks to power to an impressive 35-20 win in their Rugby Championship clash at the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland on Saturday.

After a positive start to the season with a thumping win over the Wallabies and having sent a large contingent of players to New Zealand early to make sure they were fresh for the match, the Boks will be bitterly disappointed with this result.

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Here are four key talking points from the game:

Terrible start

The Boks got off to a dismal start in the match which saw them playing catch up rugby from the get go.

Two early tries and a penalty allowed the All Blacks to surge into a 17-0 lead after just 16 minutes and although the South Africans improved over the rest of the half, they still went into the halftime break trailing 20-3.  

A stronger second half performance from the Boks saw them win it 17-15, but it will be a small consolation as they were expected to match the All Blacks and give them a much bigger test on the day.

Aerial battle

The Boks seemed to be shocked by All Blacks use of their own game plan as the hosts went to the boot early in the match with superb results.

Although South Africa is usually the ones to put teams under pressure with a strong kicking game, putting bombs up and box kicking from the base of the ruck, it was the New Zealanders who employed this tactic this time and executed it to perfection as the Boks were unable to get their hands on the ball in the opening moments.

It was disappointing to see them beaten at their own game and they will need to go back to the drawing board.

Poor defence

Terrible defence in the opening quarter of the match ended up costing the Boks massively as the All Blacks built an unassailable lead.

A number of missed tackles allowed the hosts to make plenty of metres in the early phases and both tries were scored from poor defence.

The first to scrumhalf Aaron Smith saw wing Will Jordan not held in a tackle, get up and run around three defenders before offloading to Smith to score. The second saw flank Shannon Frizell brush off one attempted tackle before running straight over fullback Willie le Roux to score.

Set pieces

The Springboks much vaunted set pieces struggled to fire on a difficult night in Auckland. The All Blacks managed to nullify the Boks usual scrum dominance and even earned a few penalties at the scrum over the match.

The Boks usually pride themselves on their lineout work, but two missed lineouts in the first half helped the All Blacks massively. The Boks maul was also ineffective for large parts of the match, with only the try to replacement hooker Malcolm Marx one of the few occasions that the South Africans managed to get any go forward.